Looking for a pedal to emulate a sitar
Posted: Sat Dec 30, 2006 5:23 pm
Anyone know of a pedal besides the sitar swami by Danelectro or even a technique to get an electric guitar sound somewhat like a sitar?
There really isn't much of a technique to replicating the sound and pedal is only useful for so much in trying to simulate it.
The core of a sitar's sound comes from sympathetic strings that ring along with the core note harmonically. The drone is the key to the sound. There are a couple of manufacturers who make "electric sitars" that essentially play like a guitar (Jerry Jones being the most famous).
If you're talking more of the tonality of the plucked string, you need an instrument with a resonator or find a way to replicate that sound manually. You'd probably have to experiment with taking something like an old high E string and intertwining it through the strings near the bridge to give it that "koto" effect. Remember that sitars, kotos, and the like do not have a lot of sustaining notes on the plucked strings and that the vibration of the string hitting something else is what gives it that "twang". It's the same reason why a banjo makes a similar sound because an unfixed bridge has direct contact with a vibrating resonator.
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